which had been stated.
He particularly pressed an attention to this circumstance; for the
complaint of being likely to want hands in Jamaica, arose from the
mistake of including the present unnatural deaths, caused by the
seasoning, among the natural and perpetual muses of mortality. These
deaths, being erroneously taken into the calculations, gave the planters
an idea that the numbers could not be kept up. These deaths, which were
caused merely by the Slave Trade, furnished the very ground, therefore,
on which the continuance of that trade had been thought necessary.

The evidence as to this point was clear; for it would be found in that
dreadful catalogue of deaths, arising from the seasoning and the
passage, which the House had been condemned to look into, that one half
died. An annual mortality of two thousand slaves in Jamaica might be
therefore charged to the importation; which, compared with the whole
number on the island, hardly fell short of the whole one per cent.
decrease.

Joining this with all the other considerations, he would then ask, could
the decrease of the slaves in Jamaica be such--could the colonies be so
destitute of means--could the planters, when by their own accounts they
were establishing daily new regulations for the benefit of the
slaves--could they, under all these circumstances, be permitted to plead
that total impossibility of keeping up their number, which they had
rested on, as being indeed the only possible pretext for allowing fresh
importations from Africa? He appealed, therefore, to the sober judgment
of all, whether the situation of Jamaica was such, as to justify a
hesitation in agreeing to the present motion.

It might be observed, also, that, when the importations should stop,
that disproportion between the sexes, which was one of the obstacles to
population, would gradually diminish; and a natural order of things be
established. Through the want of this natural order, a thousand
grievances were created, which it was impossible to define; and which it
was in vain to think that, under such circumstances, we could cure. But
the abolition, of itself, would work this desirable effect. The West
Indians would then feel a near and urgent interest to enter into a
thousand little details, which it was impossible for him to describe,
but which would have the greatest influence on population. A foundation
would thus be laid for the general welfare of the islands; a new system
would ris